NORFOLK, Va. – Mike Dixon was named the Associate Head Wrestling Coach at Old Dominion University, as announced by Head Coach Steve Martin on Monday afternoon.

“This promotion is our way of recognizing Mike’s commitment to the Old Dominion wrestling program,” said Martin. “Mike is one of the top assistant coaches in the country and we wanted to make sure that he knew how important he is to our current and future success.”

Dixon enters his tenth season with the Monarch wrestling team, after first serving as a volunteer assistant for the 2005-06 campaign. Besides coaching, Dixon handles recruiting, academics, putting together work-out regimens, scheduling practices, travel arrangements, among many other duties and responsibilities.

“I would like to personally thank Coach Martin for the great leadership he has provided to this program during my time here at Old Dominion,” said Dixon. “Under his vision, many milestones have been set and continue to be achieved. I am extremely pleased to be a part of that vision and am very thankful and humbled to be named an Associate Head Coach. I am very proud to be a part of the Old Dominion Monarch family and look forward to for many years to come.”

Perhaps, one of Dixon’s largest impact comes in the recruiting department, where he was responsible for bringing in four Top 10 recruiting classes in his first five years in Norfolk. Over the past five years, Dixon has kept Old Dominion in the state of national prominence by bringing in all Top 20 recruiting classes.

Dixon and the staff are not only bringing in very talented athletes, but also extremely driven academic students as well. This past season, the ODU wrestling team had the second highest grade point average of all 79 Division I wrestling programs in the nation. The Wrestling Monarchs have absolutely excelled academically in recent memory, as this accomplishment marks the third time in just four years that the ODU wrestling team has finished nationally in the Top 10 academically, as Dixon guided the squad to the No. 8 ranking in 2013, while in 2011, ODU was ranked No. 5.

Just in the past three seasons, Dixon has played a major role in the Monarchs qualifying 17 student-athletes for the NCAA Championships. In each of those past three seasons, Dixon also helped the program obtain a Top-25 national team ranking. In addition to this past season’s successes, Tristan Warner won the prestigious Elite 89 Award, given to a participant who has the highest GPA in the NCAA Championship.

This past season, Dixon guided redshirt-freshman Jack Dechow, (184 lbs) to All-American status after placing fourth at the NCAA Tournament in Oklahoma City. Meanwhile in April, Dixon proved instrumental in redshirt-freshman Kevin Beazley claiming the FILA Junior National title in Greco-Roman at 96 kilos, earning himself a spot on the Junior World Team.

Dixon came to Old Dominion after serving as an assistant coach at James Madison University.

Prior to his stint at JMU, Dixon coached four Academic All-Americans, five national qualifiers, and the most wrestlers in the school's history to finish in the top twelve in the country with three, at the University of Indianapolis.

Dixon also spent some time as an assistant coach with Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis, Indiana.

A 2001 graduate of Indiana University with a degree in management, Dixon was a four-year varsity letter winner for the Hoosiers. An NCAA qualifier, he was a 2001 University National Freestyle Champion and placed fourth at the Pan American Games.

In 2012, Dixon earned his master's degree in education from Old Dominion University.

“I would also like to thank the University administration as well as Dr. Selig, Deb Polca, and Ken Brown,” Dixon concluded. “Their support of Old Dominion Wrestling has been tremendous and none of the success that we have achieved would be possible without them. I am grateful and thankful to everyone that is involved with the Old Dominion wrestling program. It is a true supportive environment and we will continue to work hard to bring in quality student athletes that have high aspirations of graduating with a degree, winning a national title, and pursuing life long goals, whatever they may be.”